1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a program and, more particularly, to a technique suitably usable for selecting a representative image from a plurality of images photographed sequentially.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a camera using a semiconductor image pickup element constructed by a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) or the like has frequently been used in place of a camera using a silver salt film. Such a type of camera has such a construction that image data is electronically recorded into a recording medium and is displayed by a display apparatus such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), and is commercially available as a digital camera.
In such a digital camera, a camera of a type which has a continuous photographing function generally called a continuous photographing and can record a series of related image data also exists. There is a case where a plurality of images are photographed and recorded onto a recording medium as a series of photographing operations or mutually-related image data in accordance with user's intention. For example, according to the Official Gazette of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-221769, a method whereby a plurality of recorded image data are set as related image data and a representative image is decided from those related image data and recorded is used. However, there is such an apparatus that a tag or an attribute such as “favorite” or the like can be allocated as classification information. In such an apparatus, even if the classification information is allocated to the representative image or other images among the related image data, there is a case where if the representative image of the related image data is deleted, the image for which the classification information is not considered is selected as a representative image. For example, there is a case where an image which is photographed subsequently to the deleted image but has no relationship therewith is selected as a new representative image. In such an apparatus, a selecting method of the representative image is imperfect, the user thus has to select a representative image again, and more troublesomeness is required.